Savages
by MarvelGeek
Summary: "My elder brother once told me that the Great Spirits would always watch over us. I never doubted him, not even the day that the Great Spirits seemly turned their backs on our people. The day the evil blue skinned ones attacked." The Avengers have a new war on their hands when three children from a tribe of people cast from Jotunhiem show up on their doorstep.


'**_When the earth was young_**

_**And the air was sweet**_

_**And the mountains kissed the sky**_

_**And the great beyond with its many paths**_

_**Man and Nature lived side by side.' **_

-_**Great Spirits**_

_My elder brother once told me that the Great Spirits would always watch over us. I never doubted him, not even the day that the Great Spirits seemly turned their backs on our people. The day the evil blue skinned ones attacked._

_ Elder brother saved us, he carried us all the miles that our captors made us walk. My twin sister, Kiwa under one shoulder and I beneath the other. Elder brother was only fifteen summers old as he endured all of his own torture, and to protect us, he took our burdens as well. He was whipped three times as hard, had three less portions when they decided to feed the 'Savages', and he walked three times as far. _

_Kiwa tried to mend his moccasins whenever we got the chance to stop but Kiwa, like me was only four summers old, so she didn't know how to mend them properly. Yet Elder brother always smiled at her and told her that he appreciated the crude stitching she had done. Yes, Elder brother loved us with all his heart. _

_So when a few of the male, blue skinned creatures tried to take advantage of Kiwa, he shoved her behind him and launched himself at the creatures, snarling and scratching like a true warrior of The People. I tried to help as well but Elder Brother just shook his head at me. _

_**"**_**_No, Noconah. Stay behind me, little brother."_**

_He growled, pushing me behind him with Kiwa. The blue creatures soon fought back, throwing my brother limply to the ground. They laughed as they beat him senseless, calling us 'Savages' again. I grew to hate that word, it meant below them, trash and something or some creature that they didn't understand. _

_But I'm getting off topic, this isn't my story to tell. At least not fully. But since I'm the only one who's still around to tell it, I guess the honor falls to me. In truth it's my Elder brother's story, the story of a young man named Denahi, a boy named Noconah and a girl named Kiwa and how they came to protect and teach a group of super heroes. They changed said heroes for the better, just as the heroes changed them. This is their story..._

-TimeSkip-

"Down on your knees Savage! Bow down before your master."

Kiwa shrieked in fear for Denahi as the blue creatures dragged their older brother from them. Noconah held his twin back, sadness and anguish filling the child's eyes. They had lived with the blue giants for three summers, they had become nothing but slaves now, trophies of war.

Most of their men had been taken away to be killed in fear of an uprising, all that remained now were the women, children, the old and the sick, a few scattered teen males had survived but they were abused the most and took the burdens from those who could not hold them.

"Leave my big brother alone, you bullies!"

Kiwa screeched but Noconah used his hand to muffle her cries, turning both of their heads away as the whip came out. Denahi never cried out but the cutting slices of the whip would sicken them to no end, more often than not Noconah ended up on his knees, vomiting his last meal into the snow.

Both of them winced with every lash of the whip, praying for the moment that the monsters would grow bored of tormenting them and leave their big brother be. When that moment came, both Kiwa and Noconah hurried over and dropped to their brother's side. Noconah slit his binds with a small sharpened stone and Kiwa gathered their brother in her lap, hands flitting uselessly over his wounded back.

Tears of frustration and anger began to drip down Noconah's face and he wiped them away furiously, only stopping when a gently hand pulled his arm away from his face. The boy looked down to see, Denahi's face smiling up at him softly.

"The Great Spirits see us, Noconah. They will save us in time."

Denahi rasped, and Noconah scowled at his brother. His little hands clenched into fists of frustration at his sides.

"Why have they forsaken us!?"

Noconah wailed and Denahi's eyes saddened and he gestured for the boy to come to him. Which the child gladly did, throwing himself into his brother, pressing his face into his chest. Kiwa whimpered and did the same.

"Oh, Great Spirit

Whose voice I hear in the winds,

And whose breath gives life to all the world,

hear me, I am small and weak,

I need your strength and wisdom. "

Denahi crooned, weakly with fatigue and Kiwa said the next passage that she knew by heart.

"Let me walk in beauty

and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things your have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand

the things you have taught my people."

Kiwa looked to Noconah and he whispered the next passage, in a breathy voice as he looked up to the sky.

"Let me learn the lessons you have

hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make me always ready to come to you

with clean hands and straight eyes."

All three siblings recited the last verse with words of relief on their tongues. Denahi spoke because he believed everything that he'd been taught, Kiwa spoke because she trusted her older brother and was too young to remember the teachings the elders had taught them, Noconah spoke because he needed to believe that there was something bigger than the giants, someone who loved them.

"So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my Spirit may come to you without shame."

All three siblings finished and fell asleep together under the watchful eyes of the stars.


End file.
